Memories compiled by Janita Le Fevre for Eynsham Women’s Institute Centenary 1923-2023
Marion Paulin (nee Power)
I was born in Hanborough Road in 1951. Our house had a very long back garden with a chicken run at the bottom of it and behind our garden there were some very tall Elm trees complete with a noisy rookery in the top branches. One of my earliest memories is of a sunny Sunday morning with dad digging the garden and the Church bells ringing.
Along Hanborough Road on the corner of Mill Street and Spareacre Lane, where there are now flats, there was a brick water tower with a green tank on top and then a row of derelict cottages called Alma Place, which we kids used to go and explore. I liked the smell of the mint that still flourished in one of the gardens. Further along, where the Post Office and shops are now, was Billy Bantin’s farm and then Ella Whitlock’s bakery (now Talmages). A bit further again was, I think, Mr Coates’ farm where a huge Alsatian called Stormy used to eye me as I walked past. On the same side of the road was the fire station and to call the firemen to duty an air raid siren wailed across the village.
The infant school was in Station Road at the corner of the then, Swan Lane. I particularly liked Mrs Eastwood who taught the youngest class. There was a sad event at the school in that a little girl called Anne Pratt, who I vaguely remember, drowned in the river Thames. The police house was a little further down Station Road and at playtimes we children often ran to the front wall of the playground to call ‘Hello, Mr Leyland!’ to the policeman as he cycled past us. He always waved and called back, ‘Hello children’. During my time there the infant classes were moved into a building within the Primary School playground.
Ted Sharpes was the headmaster of the Primary School and he always wore a grey trilby hat. I used to dread him coming into the class to take a lesson, especially if it was mental arithmetic. I fared better if it was dictation from ‘The Little Gay Lamb’! In Mrs Stayte’s class there were large pictures mounted around the top of the walls, one of which fascinated me as it showed all the various spellings of ‘Eynsham’ throughout the ages. We often played skipping games at playtime and sometimes Mr Sharpes would get pairs of wooden stilts out for us all to play on. To get to the school I had to walk along The Backs (Back Lane) which was a terrible quagmire with many deep, water filled potholes. Either that or I walked across the open fields which now house Spareacre Lane etc.
Like many other village children, I learnt to swim at The Mill in the river Evenlode. It was a perfect place for us to bathe as it was only shallow and gently flowing, so clear, with shoals of minnows and sticklebacks and fronds of streamer weed. We were always playing out and about, usually at Monkswood (Queen Elizabeth II Field) just relying on the chimes of the Church clock to let us know when it was time for home.
Chris Ashmore
When I was just 15 years old in 1955 I was very lucky to go on a school trip to Germany. Mum and Dad had struggled to get the money for it as it was quite expensive, probably about £60! We set off on 27th December, travelling to Harwich, then on a ferry to the Hook of Holland; all very exciting, as everything we did on this trip was so different and new. Then on a train across Holland and into Germany.
We stayed in a small family-run hotel in a little village called Tiefenbach: it was magical with loads of snow. We went for skiing lessons everyday on the Nursery slopes. We didn’t have any proper ski suits, just our ordinary trousers and anoraks. The hotel had duvets on the beds, not like the sheets and blankets at home. Every morning they were hung out of the window, to air presumably. We had different things to eat, coffee and the tea was black with a slice of lemon. My friend Eileen still has it that way all these years later!
On New Year’s Eve we played games, then at midnight we opened the windows and the church bells were ringing at villages all across the valley. Fireworks were let off; it was really magical, The next day we went to Oberstdorf to see a ski jump competition. Oberstdorf is an important jump and is still shown on television now; remember ‘Ski Sunday’?
We stayed in Germany for 10 days and at the end we could ski a little bit. It was lovely to see all the children on skis looking like proper professionals. It was really a lovely holiday and such an experience for us all.
Mary Turrell
In the 1950s we lived in a big house that was unheated, save for an AGA and one open fire. Ice was commonplace on the insides of the windows, and as there was no double glazing then. Apart from the AGA used for cooking, there was a copper boiler for the washing, and a wringer to get most of the water out before the washing was hung out. We loved using the wringer: but beware your fingers!
Our garden was full of produce and nothing was bought ‘out of season’ – very little money. My sister and I entertained ourselves, making “homes” under the dining room table. When I was 13 we moved to Inverness in 1962 amid the deepest snow we had ever seen. My lasting memory of the Pickfords removal was when our Steinway piano slipped on the very steep slope. A footmark is there to this day!
My father was a talented pianist and organist and he used to go to Harrods in his lunchtime to play their piano. Entertainment for the clientele. After a fire in Harrods, the Steinway piano was damaged, so he bought it for £60.00! Then he asked my mother to marry him, so he could buy a house to house the piano.
Before he died he had our piano completely refurbished, at Steinway in London. It had travelled back and forth from Inverness!! Today my sister has the pleasure of this beautiful sounding piano and she plays it regularly.
But School in Inverness was horrible for me – a Sassenach!!!